We love raising the bar when it comes to nightlife safety and work with a wide range of public, private and community organisations to deliver projects and partnerships.
We can support you through any project with a prevention or response focus, and provide accessible expert advice on design and programme delivery. We also work in partnership with other gendered violence organisations to deliver our accreditation programme.
Myth-busting Campaign
In January 2022 we were commissioned by City of London Corporation to develop an updated and refreshed version of our popular myth-busting campaign. Displayed online and in physical locations around the borough, the posters targeted high traffic areas such as Liverpool street station, challenging harmful attitudes with smart reframes to start conversation.
We wanted to create a supporting motif for the campaign that was eye-catching in its own right, but did not risk alienating the attention of any specific audience, so we used typographic styles and colour palettes to draw in potential audiences that may not standardly engage with what they might see as ‘public information’ ads.
Our simplified face motif achieved both a neutral human representation of a shared social issue and aligning its positioning to the call and response aspect of the campaign. The first face (or voice) accompanies the myth (that draws the audience in) and the second accompanies the reframing. The most effective change happens in dialogue.
A render of one of the final campaign posters in context.
We know from our training delivery that fear of not being believed is one of the ‘stickiest’ barriers to report than women and LGBTQ+ people experience when considering their options in response to sexual violence, and that social attitudes which suggest sexual violence is frequently fabricated play into this fear. Our digital posters made this point in front of thousands of commuters a day.
One of the myth slides used for social media
Our simplified face motif achieved both a neutral human representation of a shared social issue and aligning its positioning to the call and response aspect of the campaign. The first face (or voice) accompanies the myth (that draws the audience in) and the second accompanies the reframing. We know the most effective change happens in dialogue, and Reframe the Night 2022 aims to keep pushing the conversation forward.
The accompanying mythbusting slide for the above myth
Active Bystander Campaign
We developed a striking bilingual Active Bystander campaign and toolkit for the Wales Violence Prevention Unit in the nighttime economy areas of Cardiff in 2021.
The aim was to encourage and equip people to speak up if they recognise or have concerns about someone’s attitude or behaviour, and to progress the conversation on from what is not okay, to what they can do about it.
Using everyday local language which was inclusive of and spoke to victim, perpetrator and bystander, we built a series of scenarios with the client and helped fine tune the safest most empowering responses.
The toolkit, produced in partnership with Welsh Women’s Aid, supports wannabe active bystanders to understand what stepping in safely in a range of situations in nightlife could look like, and how to ensure that when individuals engage with unsafe situations they effectively de-escalate.
As we become more confident in challenging harmful comments and actions, we can better support each other. The project acknowledges that each of us will have different levels of confidence and comfort when it comes to challenging harassment, and that personal safety is key. The toolkit provides tips and guidance on how to intervene when you notice someone behaving in a way that isn’t right.
Check out the Project microsite #SafeToSay here.
Bryony Parry, VPU Communications Lead, said
It was fantastic to work with Good Night Out Campaign on our campaign to prevent sexual harassment in nightlife in South Wales. The team brought expert knowledge to help develop an evidence-based, effective and engaging campaign, and their skills and experience meant we were able to hit the ground running and deliver an impactful campaign in a short timescale.
Our contact at GNO Bryony Beynon was also incredibly helpful in thinking about creative ways to communicate a complicated message, from the social media ads to the bystander toolkit. She played a key role in ensuring the messaging and the creative was spot on.
We were also grateful for the team’s support in engaging with partners throughout the campaign’s development and delivery – their thorough knowledge of evidence on gender based violence prevention and intervention meant we were able to get all partners on the same page and ready to support the campaign.
The campaign appeared on bus stops, parking meters, and billboards throughout Swansea and Cardiff City Centre in Summer 2021, and has been renewed and extended to be reused in other areas of the country. An evaluation of the project’s impact in empowering nightlife users to intervene safetly will be published later in 2022.
Billboard in Cardiff
Myth-busting Campaign
In 2019, we worked with Hackney Council and the City of London Corporation to develop myth-busting messaging for billboards, bus stops and public spaces around both boroughs, aimed at challenging the common myths about who is responsible for sexual violence in nightlife.
Using the concept of ‘reframing’ myths with a creative call-back to the trailblazers of the 1970s who called for women to ‘Reclaim the Night,’ we crafted these key messages to encourage nightlife lovers to see these harmful attitudes in a new light.
The public project was backed up with a series of free, open-access training events open to anyone working in the nightlife economies in Hackney or the City of London.
Doug Barrow, Chairman of the City Corporation’s Safer City Partnerships Strategy Group, said:
Sexual harassment is completely unacceptable in the City or anywhere else. It has a profound impact on the victim, affecting every aspect of their life. Many people affected by sexual violence blame themselves and question whether they could have done something differently to prevent the incident from occurring.
These views are reinforced within society by myths and beliefs about sexual harassment. Reframe the Night aims to challenge these, putting the blame and responsibility back on the perpetrator, not the victim.
Selected coverage of the project:
East London Lines: Hackney Tackles Sexual Harassment
The Morning Advertiser: Campaign to drive late-night premises to tackle sexual harassment
The campaign encourages people to be an active bystander and challenge unhelpful attitudes or harmful beliefs, to draw an active link between these attitudes and the violence they enable.
This how we reframe the culture that leads to sexual violence in nightlife.
Samantha Mathys, Hackney Council’s Licensing Team Leader, said:
We’re thrilled to be working with the City of London Corporation and Good Night Out to launch our first campaign under Hackney Council’s new night time safety charter, Hackney Nights.
Campaigns that promote positive behaviour change, like ‘Reframe the Night’, will go hand-in-hand with training, resources and additional police presence to help protect local residents, visitors and businesses from crime and anti-social behaviour. These are just some of the ways that the Late-Night Levy is helping to promote a safer night time economy.
During the period when assets were being displayed across billboards and bus stops, social media users tweeted their photos with the hashtag to help challenge victim blaming.
Promoting active engagement with these messages helps to build a conversation that goes beyond workplace training, shifting the norms of acceptable beliefs and attitudes.
Local Domestic Abuse worker Olori Grace shows her support online.
Governance Body
Night Czar Amy Lamé invited us to develop the Women’s Night Safety Charter, a London-wide commitment for organisations active between 6pm-6am, part of the Mayor’s Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy and London’s commitment to the UN Women Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces global initiative.
Working with the team at City Hall, we signed up more than 200 organisations to the charter and authored a toolkit to empower organisations each step of the way to fulfilling each of the pledges.
We spoke at the launch of the toolkit, the Safety Summit on Friday 19th July 2019, and continue to support the citywide agenda for change on this issue.
Night Czar Amy Lamé
Research
Healthy Music Audiences is a research project that aims to understand sexual harassment and assault at live music events, led by Dr. Rosemary Hill at the University of Huddersfield. We are specialist partners on the project alongside Musicians’ Union, White Ribbon, Girls Against and Safe Gigs For Women.
The project aims to:
We were invited to connect with the project to share our knowledge on these aims at an event in Leeds in June 2019. Since then, our collaboration with the researchers has grown organically to include connections with premises and event promoters interested in accreditation, and the formation of a network of organisations doing work in this area, which is covened quarterly by Dr. Hill, and included Musicians’ Union, White Ribbon, Girls Against and Safe Gigs For Women.
The project has produced a range of outputs including events, materials, research and guidance.
The Project Website saferspaces.org.uk is a great place to start on your journey to creating a safer event or licensed premises
In this report the team present their findings from the project based on interviews with gig-goers and recommendations to help respond to incidents of sexual harassment and assault at gigs and concerts
Read the Zine: Your Right to Party
Produced by Molly Megson and Rosemary Hill on Fun, Equality, Liberty and Solidarity aimed at DIY Venues and Organisers looking to implement safer spaces.
Special Interest at DIY Space for London
Disability-led Charity
Attitude is Everything improves Deaf and disabled people’s access to live music by working in partnership with venues, audiences, artists and the music industry. We brought together a team of women and non-binary Deaf and disabled live music fans to workshop their ideas and experiences of safety in nighlife settings. This session was co-facilitated by GNO trainer Alex Duffy and podcaster Joy Addo. From this, we have produced a training video and online content to support our shared aims for access and inclusion for all. We’re committed to a long-term collaboration. This project is funded by ROSA.
Specialist Support Service
SARSAS are one of our current UK Delivery Partners, running training sessions for us in Bristol and surrounds. For more information on working with us, click here.
Somerset & Avon Rape & Sexual Abuse Support are a specialist support service for people in Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol, North Somerset, Somerset, or South Gloucestershire, who have experienced any form of sexual violence, at any point in their lives.
Support, Counselling and Advocacy Service
We worked with RASA Merseyside to deliver training to premises in 2018. Read an evaluation of this work here.
Rape and Sexual Abuse Merseyside are here for anyone in the Merseyside area who has been sexually abused or raped, or who has been affected by sexual violence at any time in their lives. They have particular experience in working with adults who have been sexually abused as children. They offer emotional support, counselling, advocacy and other services to help survivors in ways that work for them.
Not for Profit Organisation
Full Stop Australia (FSA) is the Good Night Out Campaign delivery partner in Australia, trained and licensed to deliver a safer nightlife accreditation to venues, festivals, pubs, bars and clubs across the country.
FSA share their unparalleled insight and knowledge of the local context from decades of specialist work as the national organisation dedicated to ending sexual assault, domestic and family violence. We are proud to connect nightlife organisations and festivals with the FSA team. Please contact training@fullstop.org.au if you are based in Australia or New Zealand and would like to start a conversation.
Crisis Centre
SARSVL are one of our current UK Delivery Partners, running training sessions for us in Leeds and surrounds. For more information on working with us, click here.
Support After Rape and Sexual Violence Leeds are an independent feminist organisation offering a women only safe space and specialist support for women and girls in Leeds who have been affected by sexual violence of any kind at any time in their lives and need their support.
